Portable log skidders are not new to the art. U.S. Pat. No. 8,444,361 entitled, “Portable Log Skidder” issued to Hershey on May 21, 2013 teaches a portable log skidder that is towable with various vehicles with a battery operated winch. The winch has a steel cable that is wrapped around one end of the log to lift and transport the log. The present invention is a self propelled log skidder that does not require a vehicle to tow it. The ability of the present device to move on its own through the forest to retrieve and transport logs has a greater utility than that of the Hershey patent. Another limitation of the Hershey patent is, the steel cable of the winch wraps around the log and cinches tight. When the log is dropped to the ground to be removed, the steel cable is trapped underneath the log, and extra effort is required to move the log to free the steel cable. The present invention uses a grappling hook that releases the log automatically when the logs weight is no longer bearing upon the grapple, for an effortless release of the log from the skidder.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,568,876 entitled, “Portable Log Skidder”, issued to Tenney on Aug. 4, 2009 teaches a portable log skidder that is towable, and also uses a cable to cinch around the log. Tenney also suffers from the same limitations as Hershey. Those limitations include the inability to be self propelled and the inability to remove a log when finished because the steel cable is trapped beneath the log and requires extra effort to free the from the cable.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,030 entitled, “Minimal Topsoil Disturbance Log Skidder” issued to Smith on May 15, 2001 teaches a two wheeled trailer that is towed by another vehicle and is equipped with a choker chain for cinching the to a cable to lift and transport the log. Again, this invention has the same limitations as the other prior art in that it must be towed by an additional vehicle and the choker chain will become trapped under the log and will require extra effort to free the choker chain from the underside of the log once it has been transported out of the forest or to a staging location.
None of the prior art patents teach a self propelled log skidder with a grapple. There are other aspects of the present invention that overcome the obvious limitations of the prior art. Those other aspects of the present invention are disclosed within the attached specification and claims.